The South western news., 1887-10-26

has practically written over the outside door
OF many church {" No admittance And
II the stranger enters he finds practically
written over the second door: I" No Admit
lance; and If he goes in, over all the pew
doors seems written: mo Admittancen while
The ministsr stands in the pulpit, hammering
out his little niceties of belief, pounding out
the technicalities of religion, making pins.
In the most practical, commonsense way, and
laying aside the non-essentials and the hard
dehnltions of religion, go out ON the God
given mission, telling the people what they
need and when and how they can get it.
Comparatively little effort has as yet been
made to save that large class of persons in
our midst called skeptics. and he who goes to
work here will not be building upon another
mans foundation. There is a great multi
tude of them. They are afraid OF US and our
churches, for the reason we don't know how
TO treat them. One Of this class met Christ,
ana hear with what tenderness, and pathoS,
and beauty, and success Christ dealt with
him. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with thy heart, and with al thy soul and
with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.
This is the first commandment, and the sec
ond is hike to this; namely, thou shalt love
thy neighbol as myself There Is no
other commandment greater than this.
And the scribe said to him: "Well,
master, thou hast said the truth,
for there is one God, and to love
him with all the heart and all
the understanding, and all the soul, and all
the strength is more than whole burnt offer
lngs and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw
that he answered discreetly, he said unto
nm: Thou art not far from the kingdom
OF God" So skeptic was saved in one in
tervlew. But few Christian people treat the
skeptic IA that way. Instead of taking hold
OF hiIn with the gentle hand OF iaFe, Te are
apt to take him with the iron pincers of &c
clesiasticism.
You would not be so rough ON that man if
you knew by what process he had lost his
faith in Christianity. | have known men
skeptical from the fact that they grew up in
houses where religion was overdone Sun
day was the most awful day of the week.
They had religion driven into them with
trip hammer They were surfeited with
prayer meetings. They were stuffed and
told they were the worst boys the parents
ever knew because they liked to ride down
bill better than to read Bunyan's "Pilgrim's
Progress" Whenever father and mother
talked of religion they drew down the corners
of their mouth al rolled up their eyes If
any one thing WIN send a boy OF girl to de
struction sooner than another that is it, IL
had had such father and mother | fear
should have been an infidel
Others were tripped UP Of skepticism from
being grievously wronged by some man who
protested to be Christian. They had
partner in business who turned out to be a
tirst-claSs scoundrel, though a professed
Christian. Twenty years ago they had lost
all faith by what happened in an oil company
which was formed amid the petroleum ex-
element. The company owned no land, or
if they did, there was sign of oil produced.
But the. President of the company was a
Presbyterian elder, and the Treasurer was an
Episcopal vestryman, and one director was
Methodist class leader, and the other direc-
tors prominent members of Baptist and Con-
gregational churches. Circulars were gotten
out telling what fabulous prospects opened be-
fore this company. Innocent men and
women who had a little money to
invest, and that little their all, said: II don't
know anything about this company but so
many good men are at the head of il that it
must be excellent, and taking stock in it
almost as good as joining the church" So
they bought the stock, and perhaps received
one dividend SO DIS to keep them STILL but
after a while they found that the company
had reorgauized and had a different presi-
dent, and different treasurer, and different
directors. 1t was said, by way of explana-
ton, that other engagements or i'll health
had caused the former officers of the company,
with many regrets, to resign. And all that
the subscribers of that stock had to
SHOW lOI bHST iuN6SbIlGlb was Il Deaul1-
fully ornamentad certificate. Sometimes
that man looking over his old papers
comes aero S that certificate and it is
so suggestive that he VOWS he wants none Of
the religion Shat the presidents and trustees
and directors of that oil company professed.
OF course their eject. on of religion on su IN
grounds was unphilosophical and unwise.
am told that one third of the United States
army deserts every year, and there are II, 900
court martial trials every year. Is that any
thing against the United States Government
that swore them inl And If soldiers of Jesus
Christ desert, 10 that anything against the
Christianity which they swore TO support and
defend! How do you judge of the currency
of country BY a counterfeit billl Oh,
you must have patiehce with those who have
been swndled by religious pretenders Live
in the presence OF others a frank, honest
earnest Christian life, that they may be at
tracted to the SAME Saviour upon whom your
hopes depend.
Remember skepticism always has some rea-
sou, good or bad for existing. Goethes ire
ligion started when the news came to Ger.
many of the earthquake at Lisbon, Nov
/, 1775 That 10000 yopie should have per
ished in that earthquake and in the after
rising Of the Tagus river so stirred his SYM
pathies that he threw up his belief in the
goodness of God.
Others have gone into skepticsm from q
natural persistence in asking the reason why.
They have been fearfully stabbed OF the in
tertogation point. There are so many things
they cannot get explained. They cannot
IN iarstand the Trinity, or how God
an be sovereign, and yet man a
re, aren't Neither can J. They say:
~ mt Understand why n g0o1 God
should have let sin come into the world.
At'' do I. Yen saw. "Way was that
child Started in life with such disadvan-
tages, while others have all physical and
mental equipment (" / cannot tell They go
ont of church on Easter morning and say :
THAT do trine Of the resurrection COMPOUNDED
me-" So it is to me a mystery beyond I'M
ravelment. understand all the processes by
which men get into the dark. | know them
ALI I have Travelled with burfiing feet their
blistered way. The first word that children
learn to utter is generally papa or mamma.
| think the first word | ever uttered was
why" / know what it is to have hun
dred midnights pour their darkness into
one hour. Such men are not to be
scoifed at, but helped. Turn your back upon
drowning man when you have the rope
with which to pull him ashore and let that
Woman in the third story of house perish III
the flames when you have a ladder with
which to help her out and help her down,
rather than turl your back seofngly ON a
skeptic whose soul is in more peril than the
poules VI bhOse oOueI eHIaESeF6u Olleo lloS'
bly, can be- Oh, skepticism is a dark land.
There are men in this house who would give
a thousand worlds, if they possessed them,
to get back to the placid faith of their fathers
and mothers, and it is our place to help them,
and we may help them, never through their
heads, but always through their hearts.
These skeptics, when brought TO Jesus, will lie
nightly affected-far more so than those
who never examined the evidences of Chris
tianity. Thomas Chalmers was once skep
tic, Robert Han skentic. Robart Newton o
skeptic, Christmas Evans a skeptic. But
when once with strong hand they took bold
Of the chariot Of the Gospel, they rolled it on
with what momentum If ] address such
no scott. impead them by the mem